Petitions seek Mescalero settlement funds

Petitions are circulating on the Mescalero Apache Reservation that abuts Ruidoso asking tribal officials to share a $32.8 million settlement with individual tribal members in a lump sum distribution.

Joseph Geronimo, a former tribal council member, youth mentor and tribal activist, said Thursday he learned from an article in the Ruidoso News last April of a settlement in excess of $1 billion. The settlement was reached after 22 months of negotiations between 41 tribes in the United States over alleged federal agency mismanagement of money and natural resources held in trust for the benefit of tribes dating back more than 100 years.

The petitions ask for a payment to each of the estimated 4,788 tribal members as soon as possible so that they can use the money for the winter. "The high prices of everything, even basic needs, is beyond the reach of many of us," the petition states. But a disagreement over which tribal official should sign the petitions for them to be valid disrupted the effort.

"People are asking for these petitions and they are angry," Geronimo said. "I left a package for (Tribal Secretary Alfred La Paz), but he hasn't signed them. I left him a letter about following the process according to the ordinance. I think he probably is too timid to sign."

But Geronimo didn't allow the debate over whether La Paz or Tribal Council Secretary Caroline Valdez should sign the petitions stop him, he said. The original petitions with Valdez' signature are being circulated.

"On Oct.

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22, I went to Caroline Valdez, the secretary of the tribal council, and she signed these petitions, each page. And then I started circulating them," Geronimo said during an interview Thursday.

He was following an ordinance passed during the administration of the late Sara Misquez that requires each page to be endorsed by the "Secretary of the Mescalero Apache Tribal Council." Although Geronimo personally believes the ordinance is too strict and may violate the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the right to petition for redress of grievances, he met the requirement, he insisted.

During a general meeting of the tribe Oct. 19, the subject of the settlement was raised, he said. "I made a motion that we all get a money share directly to (President Frederick Chino) and he said he could not accept the motion, although almost everyone stood up when I asked if they favored the motion," Geronimo said.

Chino could not be reached for comment on plans for the settlement money.

'Settlement scandal'

During the general meeting the $32.8 million figure was mentioned, Geronimo said. However, he said tribal leaders contended the secretary of the tribe, not of the tribal council, was the person who must sign petitions and that's La Paz. Since then, Geronimo said he's tried to reach La Paz several ways but failed. He kept the original petitions circulating for signatures.

"It appears to be a settlement scandal and we want to know where our money is and we want it," he said. He was told the tribal council conducted an emergency meeting Friday and another on Monday, Geronimo said.

The individual share being requested is $5,000, with the excess going into a scholarship fund, he said.

"The tribe is not supposed to spend any money unless it is in annual budget," Geronimo pointed out, citing Article 13 of the Mescalero Constitution. "It is very clear about that. It says no expenditures of tribal funds can be expended except in conformity with the annual budget. So if they spent part of $32.8 million already and it's not budgeted, it violates the constitution."

"As far as I know, and they are hiding the budget from us, it is not in there," he claimed, saying he was told he only could receive a copy of the budget if he came before the council and explained why he wanted it.

The Interior Department manages nearly 56 million acres of trust lands for tribes and more than 100,000 leases on the lands for various uses, including oil and gas extraction, rights of way and easements, timber harvesting, farming, grazing and housing. In the fall of 2009, lawyers for many of the tribes with litigation wrote to the president and asked the administration to expedite settlement discussions.

The payments come from congressionally appropriated judgment fund used to pay settlement or judgments against the government. In return, the tribes were to drop their claims.